In quality control of textile products, quality control of a surface color thereof is one of important items, and it is regarded that points of importance in controlling color are how close to a standard color the surface color is rendered, and how to decide color tolerance.
Such quality control of color has been conducted by skilled inspectors in accordance with JIS (Z 8723) in the past. However, a color inspection through visual inspection conducted by the inspector has problems such as a lack of unity between determinations made by a plurality of inspectors, and variation in determinations made by one inspector.
Accordingly, in order to cope with the problems, a proposal has been made to conduct a color inspection on textile products, using a color measuring instrument. For example, in Patent Document 1, there has been disclosed a method whereby color measuring is made of continuous lengths, such as a piece of cloth, film, sheet, and so forth, while transferring the same by use of a plurality of sensors.
In Patent Document 2, there has been disclosed a method whereby color measurement by the color element refers to a predetermined color system with reference to a plurality of images about an inspection region of an input image which is inputted by a CCD color camera, and so forth, to thereby find a frequency distribution showing a relationship between color measured values and pixel numbers, making a determination on whether or not a target for inspection is excellent in color shade by comparing the frequency distribution with a standard frequency distribution as a preset. In Patent Document 3, there has been disclosed a method whereby reflected light from a color measuring region of a predetermined area, including patterns, is received by a sectrophotometer to thereby compute the average surface color values of one kind or more, and a determination is made on whether or not a patterned fabric is acceptable on the basis of the color difference between the average surface color values and a standard value. Further, in Patent Document 4, there has been disclosed a method whereby a fabric of weaving or knitting is run, and upon detection of a mark thereof, running is stopped to press down the fabric of weaving or knitting, thereby measuring the color values by a calorimeter.                Patent Document 1 JP 08-15026 A        Patent Document 2 JP 09-203664 A        Patent Document 3 JP 60-33020 A        Patent Document 4 JP 5 1-99088 A        